CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 284 km round trip from Couiza - roughly 5 h 42 in the saddle. The stops in between: Château de Puilaurens, L’enceinte, L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis and back through L’enceinte. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The Corbières are a rugged knot of hills between Carcassonne and the Pyrenees, covered in garrigue, vineyards and dark oak woods, and dotted with castles that seem to grow out of the rock. After the crusade against the Cathars in the thirteenth century, the French crown took over the region and rebuilt a string of fortresses to guard the border with Aragon: Peyrepertuse, Quéribus, Puilaurens, Termes, Aguilar and the walled city of Carcassonne itself, often called the five sons of Carcassonne.
Read the complete Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc is where the day begins. Next is Château de Puilaurens.
Perched on a rocky spur above a forest of firs and beeches, at around seven hundred metres, the castle of Puilaurens looks like something drawn by a child who loves castles: battlements, towers, walls following every edge of the rock. It is one of the so-called Cathar castles of the Languedoc, a group of fortresses linked to the crusade launched against the Cathar heretics in the thirteenth century. After the region came under French control, the castle was rebuilt as a royal fortress guarding the frontier with the Kingdom of Aragon, which lay just to the south until the seventeenth century. The climb up from the car park is steep but short, and the views from the top over the Fenouillèdes and the Pyrenean foothills are superb.
Read the complete Château de Puilaurens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château de Puilaurens comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is L’enceinte.
Villefranche-de-Conflent is a whole town inside a wall. Squeezed into the narrow valley of the Têt where it meets a side stream, it was founded in the eleventh century as a stronghold of the Counts of Cerdanya, and after the Treaty of the Pyrenees turned this area French in 1659 it was refortified by Vauban to hold the valley against Spain. The ramparts that give the place its label, l'enceinte, are part of the UNESCO listing of Vauban's fortifications, and you can walk along the covered galleries inside the walls. High above the town on the mountainside sits Fort Liberia, linked to the village by a long underground stairway.
Read the complete L’enceinte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 113 km into the recorded legs you reach L’enceinte. Next is L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis.
At around sixteen hundred metres, Mont-Louis is often described as the highest fortified town in France, and it feels like a frontier outpost even today. Vauban designed it in 1679 to guard the newly drawn border after the Treaty of the Pyrenees, placing it on a strategic shelf at the meeting of three valleys: the Têt dropping towards Perpignan, the Aude running north, and the wide basin of the Cerdanya opening to the west. The citadel is still used by the French army, home to a commando training centre, so parts of it are closed to visitors, but the walls and the small grid of streets inside them are free to wander.
Read the complete L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis, about halfway. Next is back through L’enceinte.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete L’enceinte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through L’enceinte sits at 123 km, about halfway. Next is back through Château de Puilaurens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château de Puilaurens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Château de Puilaurens comes up about 231 km into the recorded legs. Next is Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc closes the day.
Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc → Château de Puilaurens is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de Puilaurens → L’enceinte is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
L’enceinte → L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis → back through L’enceinte is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through L’enceinte → back through Château de Puilaurens is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château de Puilaurens → Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.